The market for trucks and buses in Brazil in the first quarter of 2022 generally saw growth, although the breakdown by weight segment shows that results were mixed, as truck registrations rose 3% to 26,852 units while bus and coach registrations dropped 0.3% to 3,322 units.

Sales of city buses (many electric) as replacement vehicles to those in fleet operation in Bogotá led to strong growth in the passenger vehicle segment in Colombia during January to March this year (2022), with 858 units delivered.

n the first quarter of 2021, truck sales in the Colombian market maintained its growth trajectory, which has been happening for virtually the whole period since the end of 2020, with 8,026 units registered.

Mercedes-Benz came out on top in registrations of bus and coach chassis locally manufactured in and imported to Brazil in the first quarter of 2022, with a 44.5% increase to 1,621 units.

The top eight* South American markets for commercial vehicles (3.5t gvw and above) finished in 2021 with a total of 254,200 units registered, an increase of 42.2% over 178,800 vehicles registered in 2020.

The report finds that the technology in battery-electric terminal tractors currently on the market is “mature enough for fleets to be making investments” in them. 

The share of the market held by battery-electric and plug-in electric vehicles in 2021 across the LCV, truck, and bus segments was 3%, 0.5%, and 10.6% respectively.

CALSTART has recently published its annual ‘Zeroing in on Zero-Emission Trucks’ report highlighting that, as of December 2021, there have been 1,215 ZETs (zero-emission trucks) deployed on US roads.¹ Crucially, however, CALSTART estimates that over 60% of ZETs deployed in the US are no longer operational. Consequently, the true number of active ZETs is much lower than initially suggested.

According to IHS Markit, Volvo Trucks achieved a 42% share of the electric truck market in Europe, with 145 vehicles under the Volvo brand having been registered in 2021.

Bus sales increased by 7% to 4,928, but remain well short of the pre-pandemic sales of 5,449 and 17,480 recorded in 2019 and 2013 respectively.

The UK subsidiary of the Italian commercial vehicle manufacturer gave an update on the performance of the S-Way and Daily, while the SMMT discussed the effects of component shortages on vehicle production.

The paper, published in Nature Electronics, argues that hydrogen technology is unlikely to play a major role in decarbonising heavy-duty vehicles, as the development of battery-electric technologies could soon render fuel-cell electric vehicles "superfluous".